Transfiguration Retreat - October 2026

Thanks to the generosity of the Sisters, this program is free.  Your donation will help us cover costs, but is not required.  Registration will open soon.

Embracing our Roots in a Strange New World

Our facilitator, Fr. Jeff Bunke, describes our retreat:

I have been doing quite a bit of work with congregations in transition – navigating away from “the way we’ve always done it” into the strange new world of transformed ministries. For many communities this means a radical shift away from the Church as they’ve known it into collaborative and non-traditional forms of ministry not contemplated by mainline denominations since perhaps the 19th and early 20th centuries (if then). Working as part of a 6-member team, I’ve helped the Northwest Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church develop a “New Ministry Journey” Process.

Our retreat will offer meditations and encourage reflections around the radically shifting landscape of the Church in this generation* – and ways in which God’s Spirit is inviting and empowering us to be God’s instruments on the way.  We’ll use the Tree of Life reflection process as a tool to guide personal and, perhaps, group reflection. There is a great need for bathing the frontlines with prayer at this time – and I can think of no better companions on the journey than a community of sisters and their associates, who know something about prayer!

*Dwight Zschiele and Blair Pogue’s 2025 book, Embracing the Mixed Ecology: Inherited and New Forms of Christian Community Flourishing Together provides a great (if unsettling) foray into this subject.